FRONTIERS OF ZOOLOGYDale A. Drinnon has been a researcher in the field of Cryptozoology for the past 30+ years and has corresponded with Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan T. Sanderson. He has a degree in Anthropology from Indiana University and is a freelance artist and writer. Motto: "I would rather be right and entirely alone than wrong in the company with all the rest of the world"--Ambroise Pare', "the father of modern surgery", in his refutation of fake unicorn horns.

Saturday, 23 November 2013

The Vietnamese "Monster Worm" explained by Markus Hemmler

Markus Hemmler explains the situation about a current media circus:

Beginning around 10th November a story circulates, that a giant, unknown creature was dug out in Vietnam. A video shows this elongated creature - surrounded from obviously asian people - as it is lifted onto a truck (in case you’ve missed the story: http://en.rocketnews24.com/2013/11/10/what-the-hell-is-this-monster-found-in-vietnam/). As usual the weirdest speculations arised mainly about a real “Graboid” from the movie “Tremors” or something similar (personally I see a similarity to a sandworm from the movie “Dune”). However more serious people agreed in thinking that it is nothing more than a baleen whale, seemingly of the rorqual family: the video has disturbances but in some sequences the typical skin furrows of the rorquals can be seen. Additionally the body is long, cigar-like with a triangular, pointed head, blowholes and an elongated, centered ridge from the tip of the rostrum to the blowhole. As for the exact species the opinions divided ranging from a (small) blue whale to a fin whale or a bryde’s whale. It seemed to (Crypto-)Zoologist Cameron McCormick and myself the rostrum of this whale has three parallel ridges what is a distinct feature of the bryde whale (Balaenoptera brydei).

While there’s no doubt that it is a rorqual whale, there’s some doubt about the exact location (wrongly also Cambodschia was in question) and also if it is truly B. brydei. It is and here’s the full story…

In the morning of 11th October fisherman reported a stranded whale, about 13 to 15 meters long, in the mudflats about three kilometers from the coast off Vin Chau, Soc Trang, Vietnam. As can easily be seen from the available pictures this rorqual whale has three parallel ridges and therefore belongs to the bryde whales. People digged sand for water and set up tents in order to wait for the flood but for no avail. The whale died in the evening of the same day probably due to the intensive heat. Because whales are in vietnam also revered, a crane was hired to bring the carcass to an temple and to bury it (http://chaobuoisang.net/ca-voi-dai-13m-mac-can-o-soc-trang-1820504.htm; http://xalo.vn/news/tl/Ca-voi-dai-15-met-xuat-hien-o-bai-boi/1522824-0-1-20-824281.htm; a news-video is available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxt_jG1nl3Q). The transport from the coast to the temple was filmed from various people, the longest video is from a person naming herself Minhvy Kim on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_s3T_DObGw). If someone has enough time and keen eyes search for similar clothed persons in both videos (you will find them) but comparing the trucks is much easier: in both videos the side of the truck is blue. In the “monster”-video beginning from about 1:26 to 1:44 you can watch a sign at the left side with the approximate inscription “BBC 018,45” and the same sign in Minhvy Kim’s video at 17:33 and 26:13. While it seems that the “monster”-video was filmed on the coast instead it was filmed before the whale was buried at the temple. At 1:59 in the “monster-“video and at 28: 47 in Minvhy Kim’s video you can see the same red tower with golden top in the background. Case solved and closed

Additionally Cameron McCormick voiced his opinion that the unexplained carcass of a "Sea Serpent" seen by the Beaver and being cut up off the coast of China would have been something similar. Upon consideration this is by far the best explanation for that puzzling case also.-DD.

1 comment:

I’ve digged a little bit deeper and found out the name of the temple. The whale found its grave at the Sala Po Thi Seray Sako or New Temple in Vinh Chau town (http://english.vietnamnet.vn/fms/society/87378/soc-trang-people-build-grave-for-10-ton-whale.html; videos of the whale in its tomb: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wp_iYsV3EA and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AhPbjRce3VE). It was commented from some that people in the video speak Cambodian language and therefore the video was linked to Cambodia. But Khmer is seemingly also distributed in Vietnam, especially in southern Vietnam and at least some of the monks of the Sala Po Thi Seray Sako Temple seem to speak Khmer. So maybe this has led to the wrong speculation about Cambodia.

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